Happy New Year and congrats on taking the first step to reaching a healthier you! I'm glad you're getting active with SparkPeople - it's a great community, wonderful resources and fantastic support.

Please check out the SparkTeams - I think you will find a lot of others 'just like you' there. You can choose SparkTeams by age group, lifestyle or interests, geographic location or several other ways - in fact, I suggest joining more than one group, post your intro there and write blogs as often as you can - you will find tons of friends and support that way, I promise!!

In my experience, SparkPeople is like a in some ways - it's lots of fun and easy to make friends because we're all in this together. I like the way a HEALTHY LIFESTYLE is emphasized instead of a 'quick fix wonder diet' - it's about waaaaaay more than 'just' losing weight so you have definitely come to the right place!

If you ever need any help using features of the site, there are tutorial videos under the HELP section that can show you how to use the features of the site. You can also find them on the START page and several other places on the site.

If you haven't discovered The Spark book and/or the SparkDiet linked at the bottom of the START page, check them out - the program is simple but extremely effective. There is a TON of information on this site - so much it might even seem overwhelming but fortunately we don't have to 'digest' everything at once! The FastBreak program is a good way to start.

I also just discovered The Beck Diet Solution - there is a SparkTeam in support of it and that program also teaches how to 'talk back' to ourselves when we want to eat, even tho we're not hungry - you might want to check that out, too!!

No matter what, another nice thing about SparkPeople is that we have permission to be human - we don't have to change everything at once or be in a hurry to reach our goals. Take a few baby steps and then a few more and before you know it, you'll have completed a long journey - I hope you enjoy this community as much as I do - it teaches us how to make positive lifetime changes because that's the only thing that will work over time!

ABEAUTIFULIE
Hello again. Thanks for replying. I'm so glad to hear you are excited!!! :) This is the same attitude you can come here with everyday because being accountable will be the ultimate reason behind getting where you want to be. Just come with no expectations and be pleasently surprised everyday!! And hit me up whenever you need to. It's a lot of information but it doesn't need to be overwhelming. HOO-RAH to 2011, we WILL do it!2162 days ago

ABEAUTIFULIE
Yay for newbie Sparkies. I love your attitude towards this. Get back the lean indeed. Abuse this website as much as possible because although I'm a returning sparker I promise you this works!!!2162 days ago